WASHINGTON, D. C - Retired congressman Steve LaTourette, who currently heads a Washington, DC group for centrist Republicans and operates a lobbying subsidiary of the McDonald Hopkins law firm, told a Cleveland gathering today that Ohio's governor's race is "Gov. Kasich's to lose."

"He had kind of a rocky start with Senate Bill 5," said LaTourette of the unpopular 2011 effort to rewrite Ohio's laws on collective bargaining. "I think he has found his footing again. He's one of the Republican governors that supported Medicaid expansion, which is one of the centerpieces of the Affordable Care Act. He's done some things that have infuriated Republicans and he continues to infuriate Democrats on a regular basis."

Speaking before a lunchtime group assembled at McDonald Hopkins, the Bainbridge Township Republican said poll numbers seem to be going Kasich's way, and the fact that 2014 will likely be a low-turnout election will also favor Republicans like Kasich.

LaTourette said Kasich's Democratic opponent, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, "has a big hill to climb in that nobody knows who he is outside of Cuyahoga County, by and large." He also said antipathy toward Cuyahoga County in southern Ohio won't help FitzGerald.

"I remember my first week in Congress, a legislator from Cincinnati said 'If it was up to me, we'd take a chainsaw and cut Cuyahoga County and shove it out into Lake Erie and you can be your own state,' " said LaTourette. "I think Mr. Fitzgerald has those obstacles to deal with."

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